Saturday, December 17, 2016

The Obama family has landed. In Hawaii. For their last tax-payer funded Winter Holiday (whoops! trigger warning!)

The Won with Wee Won 1

The entire Happy Family

Perhaps a little vacation - well okay, you and I might consider 17 days in paradise a really BIG vacation, butt a little perspective here, people! – will renew their HOPE.

And the best part about this year’s vacation: when they return they’ll only have 15 days left in the White House. That will renew our HOPE! for CHANGE!

So as we all go about our Christmas shopping/baking/tree trimming/chores here’s a little something to make the time fly by even faster than it already does: a whole album of Bing Crosby doing something he does much better than acting: singing Christmas Carols.

And yes, it features that old Yuletide classic, Mele Kalikimaka, that I feature in the post every Christmas Eve. Somewhere around the 48 minute mark.

See the whole movie here, if you want an almost black and white version; hereif you’re feeling more HOPEful and want to go all technicolor on me.

We had to stop the recount to prevent further evidence of voter fraud from showing up.

Or it may have been hacked by Jill Stein who decided to become the Clintons’ useful idiot by starting the “Discredit Trump” recount.

Or it may be by the on-going Liberal disinformation campaign that is behind the demand letter filed by 1029 50 Electors to receive an intelligence briefing about the non-existent Russian hack (butt not the Detroit hack) prior to casting their votes on December 19th. You will be surprised that the Clinton Kamp supports this effort as well. The lead signer of the “open letter” demand is a California elector named Christine Pelosi, who happens to be Nancy’s daughter. Excerpt of the letter, viaAndy Schlafly:

“We do not understand our sole function to be to convene in mid-December and summarily cast our votes,” the letter goes on. “The Constitution envisions the Electoral College as a deliberative body. Accordingly, we seek an unrestrained opportunity to investigate, discuss, and deliberate with our colleagues about whom to vote for.”

Would now might be a good time to point out that the Electoral College is a voting mechanism, not a deliberative body?

No, the Constitution does not allow the Electoral College to deliberate; in fact, it prevents the electors from constituting themselves as a deliberative body. Electors are required to meet separately in each state, on the same day, and only the winning slate is eligible to attend each state’s meeting. - Andy Schlafly

Or maybe the hacker is Josh Earnest: if anyone has launched a Russian-style disinformation campaign it is the Obama administration and he is the current spokesmouth. In an attempt to discredit Obama’s successor they’ve launched an all-out assault which begins with stomping their feet and yelling “Russia!” and ends with stomping their feet and yelling “Russia!”

To which my only reply is; You. Cannot. Be. Serious. The people who invented fake news are also the same people who weaponized it. So I ask, who should we believe:

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

It has been 36 days since the election and the Libs are still busy blaming everybody and their typical white grandmas for their loss: James Comey, White Supremacists, the Russians - ah yes! The Russians!

And since nobody has disputed the veracity of the information released by the hacked emails I cannot fathom why anyone would object to citizens having more data available in order to cast a more informed vote. Especially since it’s the kind of data we once expected from impartial investigative journalists – you know, in order to keep the public informed of political corruption?

And now it looks like the allegations of voter fraud made by Jill Stein have indeed turned up evidence of voter fraud. No, not the voter suppression that the Right is well known for, quite the opposite: extra-credit voting. And in Democratic bastions like Detroit where it looks like they were running a BOLO (buy 1 get 1 free) promotion on election day. As I reported last week over one-third of Detroit’s precincts couldn’t be included in Michigan’s recount because, in a nutshell: more votes than voters. Again. I can’t imagine how that could happen. It’s a good thing the Judge shut the Michigan recount down for unrelated reasons. Too bad the State Legislature is launching a thorough audit of Detroit’s votes.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

First the Russians meddled in our election and froze Hillary out of her rightful spot on the top of the Hill.

The fact that she wasn’t in any physical condition to mount the summit seems irrelevant to her supporters. I mean, really, she couldn’t even mount a set of stairs without the help of a few Sherpa's.

Sometimes even the pack animals need a little help

Now I hear that Russia’s hacked into the Global Warming computers. They are shifting world-wide weather patterns by sending their Siberian Express to the United States to freeze us all out:

Run for the Hilz! The Russians are coming!

Temperatures this weekend are expected to drop a good 10 to 30 degrees below normal in many locations. That means more record lows are expected to be broken as this Siberian airmass moves South through the United States. – KFOX 14

Apparently the Russians don’t believe in Global Warming either. No wonder they wanted Donald Trump to win. Remember when Obama was president – oh wait a minute, he still is! Butt I mean when he was really president like in the winter of 2013-14:

Back then cold weather was caused by the Polar Vortex; a term I find a little bit triggering, “polar” being so white and all.

Who you callin’ “whitey” boy?

I hope the Russians pull their Siberian weather hack in time for the inauguration on January 20, 2017. If not I’m sure a little cold and snow won’t bother The Donald. He will be just fine at the top of that shining city on the hill.

Monday, December 12, 2016

“It is not at all clear to me, just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC was not a false flag operation,” he told Fox News’ Eric Shawn on Sunday.

When pressed about his use of the phrase “false flag” and whether he was accusing an entity in the U.S. of involvement, Bolton said, “We just don’t know.”

“But I believe that intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree.” – WND

Remember, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean somebody isn’t out to get you.

What if that “entity” was the CIA itself? That would certainly explain why PE Trump is not anxious to get daily intelligence briefings from them. And even if it’s not the CIA, his explanation of why he doesn’t need daily briefings makes perfect sense to me:

“You know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.” Instead, Trump told his advisors, “If something should change from this point, immediately call me. I’m available on one minute’s notice.” Trump also said that “my generals,” as well as Vice-President-elect Mike Pence, were being briefed in his absence.

It’s called “delegating” and it’s what top executives do if they want to effectively lead an organization. That’s why it’s important to be surrounded by competent people you can trust to tell you when things escalate to the level requiring your involvement. How do you think men like Secretary of State-in-waiting Rex Tillerson manages to run a yuuge organization like ExxonMobil?

I’m not accusing Director Brennan of anything butt remember, this is not your Panetta’s or Petraeus’ CIA. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that co-opting agencies is certainly not outside the experience of the Barry regime - the weaponization of the IRS and the de-weaponization of the Justice Department come to mind .

Anyway, now that Rudy is officially out of the running for a cabinet position I’m beginning to see the plan. Concurrent with making America Great Again Rudy and the Donald are also going to make a great American city great again: RUDY FOR MAYOR! AGAIN! MAKE NEW YORK GREAT (AGAIN)

Sunday, December 11, 2016

I noticed that the Garden Cafe and Diner, aka Bartertown Diner, closed up shop this week after only 5 years. You could be forgiven if you thought it was due to lack of interest in it’s menu:

Bartertown's initial menu was described in a 2011 MLive review as an "imaginative" array of veggie, vegan and raw dishes that came with names like Dirty Dirty Beans & Greens and Raw Trash salad. MLive

But you’d be wrong. There seems to be an unrelenting demand for food that is “sustainable” and doesn’t “destroy the planet.”

Sorry Bacon, that ain’t you.

The closure was actually due more to politics than food, specifically progressive politics; along with a decidedly unsustainable business model:

Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on Cappelletti's own restaurant experience.

"Because of our economy, people are working 12- to-15-hour shifts, servers take home $200 to $300 a night in tips, the cooks are making $10 an hour[ed.that’s unfair!] and the owner takes whatever he takes [ed. he takes whatever’s left, it’s called “profit.” Or, as the collective learned “loss” when you fail to cover your costs.] Cappelletti told MLive in 2011. "We're going to have equal pay and equal say across the board. Everyone working together."

Oh, and the employees were required to join the Industrial Workers of the World union. Because, you know, solidarity.

Eating proletariat food under the watchful eye of Communist dictators, “what could go wrong?” In the end this Communist/progressive model failed miserably at the micro level just as it repeatedly has on the macro; people get tired of poor service and often inferior goods. Despite some initial enthusiasm for it’s vegan fare people ultimately objected to waiting 40 minutes for a tempeh sandwich with sprouts to go. As it turns out the capitalist model works better to incent people to perform at a minimum level of adequacy than the progressive model which pays everyone the same no matter how inadequate they are.

They might have bought a clue from one of Michigan’s first collective joints, the venerable Del Rio which operated in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor for a remarkable 35 years as a collective manager-free establishment.

Not that there weren’t always complaints, butt we’re talking Det Burgers, booze and jazz in Ann Arbor, with an occasional impromptu session with Motown native, Bob Seger. The Del became an icon in a town that reveres such things and provides a guaranteed clientele turnover every 4 years. Unfortunately the Del’s reputation and mystique long outlived both it’s form and function. And an employee-owned no-management bar and restaurant is all fine and good until…well, it isn’t. That point arrived in 2003 when reviews constantly complained of slow, slovenly and surly service and mediocre food.

So after a 35 year run as an “employee-owned” we discovered who the real owners were when they decided to shutter the place rather than deal with disgruntled employees picketing the place and making demands for, among other things, higher wages.

“The bar’s operation as a collective no longer seemed feasible,” writes Harburg in “Consensus.” “In years past, a few dedicated employees had always emerged as informal leaders. But over the past decade, this had happened less and less frequently. Most of the employees of the ’90s lacked the idealism of earlier workers and weren’t committed to a collective.”

When the switch finally came, however, the owners discovered that the current crop of employees were in fact very committed to the concept of communal governance. Not only did several veteran workers quickly resign, many of those who left (or were fired) formed into picket lines that marched the sidewalk in front of the bar. The owners, all well into their 70s, decided that they simply didn’t have the time or energy to cope with this latest crisis. When no buyers could be found, the Del Rio closed its doors for good, following a gala last-night celebration that went on into the wee hours of January 1, 2004. – AA Chronicle